Why men and women find longer legs more attractive

Men are not alone in finding the leggier form more attractive. Women consider longer-legged men more physically appealing than their stumpier counterparts, a study has found.

Research involving more than 200 men and women revealed that people whose legs are 5% longer than average are considered the most attractive, regardless of their gender.

Studies into sexual attraction have already shown that taller people are generally perceived as being more physically appealing to the opposite sex, but until now little was known about the effect a person's leg length had on their overall attractiveness.

Psychologists led by Boguslaw Pawlowski at the University of Wroclaw in Poland investigated by asking 218 male and female volunteers to rank the attractiveness of seven men and seven women from digitally altered images.

While all of the people were the same height, the length of their legs was altered to make them equal to the Polish average or longer by 5%, 10% or 15%.

The team found that regardless of the volunteers' own body shape and leg length, people whose legs were 5% longer than average were rated as the most attractive. The next most appealing was an average leg length, or those that were 10% longer than normal.

The scientists believe there are good evolutionary reasons for the preference. "Long legs are a sign of health," Pawlowski told New Scientist magazine.

Previous research has linked shorter legs with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and obesity-related type 2 diabetes in both sexes.

Shorter-legged men are also more likely to have higher levels of triglycerides, which are linked to arterial disease and strokes.

Although the study only looked at Polish people, Pawlowski suspects the effect to be common across cultures.

Martin Tovee, a reader in visual cognition at Newcastle University, said longer legs were one of many subtle cues that suggest good health, especially in women.

"Leg length is a good indicator of childhood nutrition in women because their legs stop growing once they reach puberty. So if a woman has long legs it suggests she grew up in a good environment and that has a positive effect on fertility.

"The effect in men is more subtle, because their legs continue to grow beyond puberty," he said.